For building road surfaces, screeds are used in practice. The screed is pulled by a road finisher, from the material hopper of which by means of a conveyor installation material for building is distributed in front of the screed.
Conventionally, single functions of the screed are controlled from the cab of the road finisher. For example, various working parameters on the screed components can be adjusted from the cab. Alternatively thereto, the functions of the screed can be controlled by means of a control unit, which is mounted on the side of the screed. The personnel most of the times operates the control unit while they walk next to the screed during installation, or from the position of a walkway, which is arranged transversely behind the screed at the screed frame. From there, however, an accurate control of the control unit is nearly impossible and the personnel needs to simultaneously concentrate on several things, which may cause accidents. In addition, in order to control the control unit mounted on the screed, the personnel comes very close to the operating area of the screed, where work accidents never can be completely excluded.
In fact, the walkway is not provided to stay longer on it, for example to control the control unit from there. The walkway in particular is to enable the operating personnel to cross the newly built road surface without thereby stepping on the hot, eventually even non-compacted installation material, which may lead to undesired imprints.
However, due to the fact that the operating personnel so far has used the walkway also for staying longer in order to in particular control the control unit and to observe the installation from there, certain risks occur for the operating personnel. Specifically, the walkway only has a narrow passage, from which especially in wet weather conditions, one may easily slip off. Moreover, only regarding small screed types, an operation of the control unit can be carried out, which even then is restricted.